Romania's tax authority gets access to data about .ro domain owners

Romania’s National Fiscal Administration Agency (ANAF) and the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI Bucharest) will sign a cooperation protocol for the exchange of information. The agreement will grant the tax authority direct access to identification data of individuals who own .ro domains. ANAF will thus be able to find out directly from ICI who owns such domains. The aim is for ANAF to collect the necessary data to “fulfill its duties on collecting revenues and preventing and combating tax evasion and fraud”, according to the tax authority. ANAF is mainly interested in finding out who are the owners of local online stores, some of which have been operating without paying any taxes. The parliament has debated in the past a draft bill on making the identity of individuals who own websites in Romania public, without their consent. The project was, however, blocked, because it violates EU rules. editor@romania-insider.com